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This article discusses the history of whaling from prehistoric times up to the commencement of the International Whaling Commission (IWC) moratorium on commercial whaling in 1986. Whaling has been an important subsistence and economic activity in multiple regions throughout human history.
Whaling’s origins lie in the small boats used to capture whales as part of the subsistence diet of various traditional cultures. Most traditional whaling techniques date back thousands of years. Early human communities living in coastal regions hunted whales first by corralling them with a group of boats and then driving them ashore.
Whaling began in prehistoric times in coastal waters. The earliest depictions of whaling are the Neolithic Bangudae Petroglyphs in Korea, which may date back to 6000 BC. [7] . These images are the earliest evidence for whaling. [8] .
Traditions as varied as the Inuit (who hunted in the Arctic Ocean), Basque (who hunted in the Atlantic), and Japanese (who hunted in the Pacific) relied on whales to provide material goods, as well as part of their cultural identity. Nearly every part of the whale was used.
Whaling, the hunting of whales for food and oil. Although once widely conducted, whaling has declined since the mid-20th century, when whale populations began to drop catastrophically. Learn more about the history and process of whaling as well as opposition to it.
The method for catching whales has evolved over millennia as humans have moved from small-scale whaling to commercial whaling and have adapted to developments in technology. Early whalers caught small, coastal whales that came to breed in bays near the coast.
Three of them relate to American offshore whaling: one describing every known voyage from the 1700s through the 1920s, another transcribing location information from whaling logbooks, and the third containing crew lists for these voyages.
The American whaling fleet, based on the East Coast, operated hundreds of ships in the South Atlantic, Pacific, and Indian Oceans. Whaling was a multi-million dollar industry, and some scientists estimate that more whales were hunted in the early 1900s than in the previous four centuries combined.
Whaling began in the Davis Strait region of the Arctic in the 17th century. Dutch, German, English and Scottish whalers largely confined their efforts to the eastern (Greenland) side until the expeditions of John Ross (1818) and W. Edward Parry (1819) crossed Baffin Bay and showed the way to Lancaster Sound.
The first whaling ship, from America, came to New Zealand waters in 1791. Over the next 10 years, the seas around New Zealand became a popular place to catch whales. There were plenty of them, and New Zealand provided safe waters and a place to stock up on food and wood.